title: Chemical-garden formation, morphology, and composition. I. Effect of the nature of the cations.
abstract: We have grown chemical gardens in different sodium silicate solutions from several metal-ion salts--calcium chloride, manganese chloride, cobalt chloride, and nickel sulfate--with cations from period 4 of the periodic table. We have studied their formation process using photography, examined the morphologies produced using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and analyzed chemical compositions using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) to understand better the physical and chemical processes involved in the chemical-garden reaction. We have identified different growth regimes in these salts that are dependent on the concentration of silicate solution and the nature of the cations involved.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC-Universidad de Granada, Facultad de Ciencias, E-18071 Granada, Spain. julyan.cartwright@csic.es
authors.forename: Julyan H E
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Cartwright
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Escribano
authors.forename: C Ignacio
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Sainz-Daz